What happened to the humble joystick?

[dreamkatcha]

Recently I caught the emulation bug again after a long break away and decided to get myself a basic joystick to use to play some of the old Amiga classics. I was surprised to discover that this is far easier said than done. No-one seems to manufacture bog standard, no nonsense joysticks anymore. If you want to play retro games which weren't designed to make use of the mouse/keyboard combo, you have to bite the bullet and buy a 7 foot tall monstrosity with 32 buttons, force feedback support and all manner of spinny-rotatey attachments, which mostly seem to be there to look pretty. There are still plenty of decent, simple joypads available, even ones which don't require you to invest in a crane to be able to pick them up, but I was always more of a joystick person. I grew up using joysticks so became much more adept at gaming this way. I was all thumbs and thumbs when it came to joypads.

In the end I gave up and got a joypad instead. Even so I'd be interested to know if anyone has come across any simple, modern, USB joysticks for sale i.e. the ones with just a short shaft and a couple of buttons.

Is it only wannabe pilots and trainee terrorists who buy joysticks these days?

[plasmatron]

I think you`ll love me for that.

http://www.speed-link.com/prod.php?l...od_num=SL-6602

Originally Posted by plasmatron

I think you`ll love me for that.

http://www.speed-link.com/prod.php?l...od_num=SL-6602

Here's the same link (in ENGLISH): http://www.speed-link.com/prod.php?l...od_num=SL-6602

And here's a unknown (to me) UK supplier:

http://www.meroncourt.co.uk/prodview/981

At £9.99 including VAT I was suprised how cheap a speciality product like this would be these days.

[Peanutuk]

Or you can use an amiga four player adaptor lead in the pc and use any amiga (or any 16 or 8 bit) joystick your heart desires. such as i do...

[sarek2k]

Cool piece of kit till they bring out the zip stick version i'll gladly settle for a comp pro happy days are back again

to anyone who didn't notice this is USB, 4 independant buttons (for other emulation or ermmm pc games) and turbo tho i never did see a use for that

[Photon]

I liked TAC-2 and those Quickshot joysticks with microswitches and a stubby red knob-joystick, shaped like a -- I don't know, small flat breadbox with suction cups

Guess you could always buy a real Amiga second hand & dirt cheap if there's a joystick bundled

[Shoonay]

You've guys seen this?

[sarek2k]

hmmm i seen that site already tonight Shoonay from your other post. didn't see any joysticks on it tho! anyway wasn't a great fan of quickshot joysticks whatever format and i have had most of em also that top joystick is a cheetah one but can't remeber the model number all i know is it wasn't a 125! (anyone else know?)

[dreamkatcha]

Originally Posted by plasmatron

I think you`ll love me for that.

http://www.speed-link.com/prod.php?l...od_num=SL-6602

Aww, there's no kissy-smoochy-huggy smilie. Shucks!

That's brilliant! I want one! Thanks for the links. I'd much rather buy a new retro joystick than a secondhand original one. Some of them got such a battering I wouldn't trust them to last. My brother used to go through them faster than you could say, "if you're going to break everything you touch, buy your own damn hardware you selfish son of a bitch". The oaf nearly broke my back on one occasion when he shoved me aside to get at the joystick I'd hidden in the cupboard. Those were the days.

I think I must have tried all the top-rated joysticks over the years: the Comp Pro (and the cute dinky one, remember that?), the turquoise, yellow and pink Cruiser, some boxy crystal thing that let you peek inside at all the circuitry, the Quickshot Python. All great kit, but none of them could stand up to the 'Ham-Fisted Big Brother Test'.

I wonder if these new Comp Pro joysticks work with the Mac. There's no mention of it being Mac compatible, but then USB is fairly standardized these days. As long as it doesn't need special software to operate I reckon there's a good chance it might work.

I was surprised by the price too. I doubt there's huge demand for these devices yet they've managed to keep the cost down so you get a cool piece of retro technology and a great bargain in one.

[sarek2k]

also another note i have seen these joysticks going on Ebay for 25 quid make sure you don't get caught with them

[dreamkatcha]

Just checked out eBay and all but one of the ones there have a double-the-real-value-buy-it-now-price (I think I'll submit that to the Oxford dictionary as a new word suggestion). The bidding starts at £0.99 on the other one, though I bet the seller has put a silly reserve price on it. The swindler!

Edit: I've just had a reply from the manufacturers. They tell me that the joystick will work with the Mac if you're running the Jaguar edition of OSX, or if not, providing you have USB Overdrive (or similar I'd imagine) installed - there mustn't be any Mac specific drivers available. Yipee!! It looks like I'll be getting one then.

Does anyone know if any of the mentioned joysticks work on 2 player co-op play under winUAE or felllow, i.e if you buy two sticks and plug em in , does windows XP dectect them as two seperate joysticks like ms sidewinder joypads ?

Thanx.